Biggest iPhone Hack in History: Here’s What iOS Users Need to Know Now

If you’re not a little worried about your iOS operating system turning against you in light of recent events, you should be. The biggest security breach in Apple history is upon us and those who do not get savvy could find themselves victims of fraud, identity theft, or worse. Here’s what iPhone users need to know about hackers, jailbreaking, KeyRaider, and what to do now.

Investigators have found that 18 countries from Singapore to South Korea have been targeted. Basically, iPhone users were targeted because they have been exempt from such threats for so long, they had become an easy target.

Who is at Risk?

If you’ve jailbroken your phone, you’re at the highest risk for attack. Yes, Apple restricts what apps you can download and charges you a premium. It’s even legal and surprisingly simple to jailbreak your iPhone these days. But there are some serious drawbacks, including making yourself much more vulnerable to being hacked.

Not only can crooks now get your passwords and possibly even banking information, some particularly malicious malware perpetrators have locked users out of their own iPhones without ever even physically touching the phone. Why would someone do such a thing? They hold your phone for ransom. You’ve got to pay off these deplorable human beings in some sort of ridiculous iPhone hostage situation. And don’t forget that if you jailbreak your phone, even though it’s not legal, you render your warranty null and void.

Even if the last jailbreak you saw was Shawshank Redemption, you’re still at risk. While Apple is still the best in the business for preventing spyware, it’s not impervious, and hackers are starting to bank on new iPhone user naivete.

How to Protect Your iPhone

There are a few simple ways to prevent malware from making its way onto your mobile device. The first line of defense is knowledge. More than 200,000 Apple users thought their phones were safe, because, hey, it’s an Apple thought they didn’t have to worry about viruses. But now we all know better, and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The first step is acknowledging that just like a relationship or an engine, your iPhone will only be as healthy as you keep it, so stay up to date with personal security blogs and tech news.

Turn your iPhone off for an hour or two every day. Give it a rest! Let it reset. Close out all your programs. It sounds simple and easy but so many of us don’t do it.

Never ever click on links when you don’t know exactly who sent it to you personally. Ever. If you do, you’re giving hackers an open invitation.

Update ASAP. Updates keep your phone as protected and healthy as possible. If you’ve filled your phone to the brim and don’t have enough room for the download, it’s time to delete Candy Crush or some pictures. If you don’t, your whole phone could crash and then you’ll really lose everything.

Set up content restrictions on your iPhone and iPad by going to SETTINGS -> GENERAL -> RESTRICTIONS. Reset your Apple ID every six months to a strong password that doesn’t involve anyone’s birthday.

Delete your credit card info from iTunes. Yes, it will be a pain to input it every time you want to buy a good tune (especially now that you can do so straight from many streaming and music apps). But it will save you money and maybe a big hacker headache down the line.

“While Apple is still the best in the business for preventing spyware”. You might want to rethink that statement. Best in the business compared to Android maybe. But Swiss cheese is more secure than Android so that’s not a hard competition.
BlackBerry is “the best in the business for anything security related”…. period!